Nathan Stromer, 36, of Bondi, pleaded guilty to two counts of insider trading in December last year, as did his close friend and accomplice Daniel Joffe, 37, of Vaucluse.

Joffe was working as an analyst for the ratings agency Moody's in 2006 when he passed on confidential information about two proposed company takeovers and an announcement by the Australian Wheat Board.

Stromer used the knowledge to buy shares and "contracts of difference" that netted the pair $184,408.

He is now working 20 hours a week in a call centre selling wine for a supermarket, his partner, Ping Ma, told Stromer's sentencing in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Ms Ma, 36, testified that Stromer's father could be "quite abusive".

"Trading was always something that him and his father shared, a common interest," Ms Ma said. "It was almost like an attempt to gain his father's approval and respect and his father encouraged him to pursue trading."

Defence counsel also submitted that Stromer was seeking his father's approval when he made the deals with Joffe's information.

The offender's mother, Judith, told the court her husband's parenting skills were "virtually non-existent" and that he was "more like a bully". She said her son had sustained periods of "daily abuse" when working in the family business at the time of his offending.

Stromer has maintained he did not know the tip-offs from Joffe were commercially sensitive.

Crown prosecutor Stephen Rushton, SC, said this was "inconceivable" given Stromer was "an intelligent young man" with degrees in commerce and law with majors in banking and finance who had worked in a large corporate law firm for two years.

The hearing continues on Tuesday.